Overall: 3.5/5
For dinner I was looking for a restaurant that was good quality but not pretentious, allowing for a relaxed, comfortable meal. The Olive Press ticked the boxes and was also not your average restaurant chain for italian meals and offered a good range on the menu.
The decor created a clean, fresh look to the restaurant with some added style elements, namely exposed brick walls, beams and pillars, along with artwork and an open plan kitchen.
However the restaurant does seem quite small and impersonal, making it quite hard to fall in love.
I will add however, that we had a table at the back near the till and disabled toilet, which may have taken away from some of the restaurants atmosphere.
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| Mojito |
We began with mojitos, which hit the spot and weren't over sweet as some can be. The restaurant had a good variety of cocktails on offer including; "ps I love you".
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| Garlic Pizza bread with rosemary and sea salt |
For starters we shared a garlic pizza bread between three. This was a good sized portion, however it lacked flavour and the sea salt, rosemary and oil olive was spread very thinly with some pieces looking extremely bare.
A positive was the presentation on the wooden board, coming uncut allowing for diners to cut it how they would prefer. A good personal touch.
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| Flattened rump steak with garlic, chilli, peppercorn, sea salt, rocket and grana padano |
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| Polenta Chips |
For mains, I chose the rump steak and teamed it with polenta chips, which I have never tried before and was please to see a different alternative to the average fries.
We put the waiter through his paces asking about the steaks and he informed us that the rump was less fatty and therefore less chewy than the other cuts available.
However, I was slightly disappointed with it. Firstly we could only choose pink or well-done and having chosen pink, I was let-down when I couldn't find any pink meat. Secondly, the chilli was over powering but not to the point of being inedible.
The polenta chips on the hand, were tasty, well presented and innovative.
Overall, the restaurants positives are a great menu, good decor and experienced staff. I would therefore recommend it for a relaxed dinning experience. Our meal ended up quite expensive even with 10% discount. However, if you choose other meals it would be cheaper and if I returned I would go for the Baby scallops and prawn spaghetti tossed with tomato,
anchovies and capers, my second choice at the time.
